Friday, July 23, 2010

My First Baguettes

I was looking around for a baguette pan since early this year and finally got a Patisse baguette pan on my recent trip to Göteborg. The shop, which is a wholesale kitchen equipment provider for restaurants is like a mini-heaven to me with nice nifty gadgets that I would like to owned but probably will not. Here's its website and they do web orders too.

I looked around next on the Internet for a recipe and found this one at Not Without Salt's blog. Nice recipe and the original one yields four, so I scaled it down to have just enough for my 3-baguettes-pan, and along with some tips I picked up from a show clip about making baguettes I saw by 曾國城 / Zeng Guo Cheng when he visited Italy I think, when I was back in Singapore last month. It turned up very well and I made french toast and Roti John over the past few days. I also picked up a cup measure and thus, this will make following American measurements a bit simpler ;)

One day before baking, mix all the ingredients together until it becomes a dough, but it should not be too sticky. Placed in an oiled bowl, cover and refrigerate it overnight.

On the day of baking, remove it from the fridge two hours before, and divide the dough on a well-floured surface into 3 parts.

Try to flatten each portion into a rectangular shape with your hands or with help of a rolling pin, it doesn't have to be too big.

The next step is to roll the rectangular shape dough tightly like how you will be a Swiss roll, stretching it along the way until it fits the length of the baguette pan.

Cover it with a piece of towel and let if poof for another 1.5 hours or until double in size.

Pre-heat the oven at 230 degrees celsius with the rack and a baking tray under the metal rack for at least 15 minutes. Boil some water meanwhile also as you will be pouring the water into the baking tray to provide the steam required for the crusty exterior of the baguette.

Before putting the bread into the oven, slash each loaf with a sharp knife, being careful not to flatten the loaves. Place the baguette pan into the oven, and add the water to the baking tray below and bake for 20 minutes or until the top turns golden brown.

Rotate the loaves after 20 minutes to bake the underside till golden brown for about another 15-20 minutes. The internal temperature of the bread (i.e when you stick a thermometer in the middle of the loaf) should be about 93 degrees celsius when it's ready.

Let it cool before cutting! Don't be like my husband who was quite eager to taste any freshly made bread, but he's cute that way too :). You can toast it the next day for the same crusty feelings.